When one Canadian goes to the gas station, all 34 million of us help pay the tab.
Other than averting our eyes from Don Cherry's suits, it's one of the very few things we do as a country.
Each and every taxpaying Canuck is in the oil business, according to a report from the International Monetary Fund released last week.
Between money given and taxes not taken, Canada donates around $30 billion to the energy sector each year.
Coal and natural gas have their hands out, but petroleum is the hungriest caterpillar, gorging itself to the tune of $20 billion, or the equivalent of 16 million welfare cheques for a single parent with one child.
A stroll down any commercial street will reveal For Lease signs in windows, and behind most of those signs is the story of an entrepreneur who couldn't make it.
We accept their failure as the verdict of the free market, but when it comes to the oil industry, the free market's silence is deafening.
Of course, if we took away the subsidies and levied taxes, the repercussions would be swift and painful as the cost is handed back to the consumer and the rest of the private sector.
Petroleum's proponents note that without oil we'd be trying to power our infrastructure with oil blubber.
It's true that oil helped build Canada, but with climate change's everworsening effects, pipeline spills and Lac-Mégantic, it's clear we need to start working on some new ideas.
Unfortunately, the oil industry has 20 billion reasons to keep the status quo.
